se'tember by, way of bit and. bridle to g-uipe the animal; with. The faddle confifts. of a fheepHkin folded up together, and. fattened by a rope round the fore part of the ox’s bpdy. Thefe oxen , are by the colqnifts pflcp-oxen, they her. ing aho ufpd.for carrying packs and- burthens : the natne is likewife very fuitable to them on another account, which, is, that the Hottentots, very frequently ride? feveral of them, together, upori one ox. There is an order o f government, Ayhich ordains .that no Hottentot ihall be in pofle.ffion o f a horfe; in confequence of which, it is faid, that a Hottentot, who was very fond of hunting, trained one o f his paqk- oxen to run. with fuch fpeed, as, to be able to hunt elks, with it, and abfohitely run them-dqyyn. In .general, the. way that the Hottentots have qf; eluding this prohibition, is to pafs their horfes. off, for borrowed, which, in .fa it they have bought at. a high price, or got in the way of. barter, or elfe to .pretend to have-them for fafe on fome, Chriftian’s . account. Apothe,r law. qf government prohibits all Ghrif- tiaps, under pain of being whipped-and branded, tq buy, or ortierwife tq acquire the poffeffion qf, any animal, belonging to a Hottentot. The reafqn o f this is, that, government having ufe for thefe, animals, itfelf, chufes, to have the benefit o f this kind o f traffic: the Hottentots, fqr a bottle of brandy and a rpll o f tobacco a foot or two long, with about a quarter o f a rixdqllar’s worth o f fin all copper beads, generally felling a. fpare ox, worth at leaft five or fix rixdollars. What makes, them content with fo low a price, is, that the faiftor, for go-, vernment (who is generally the corporal;in R iei. Valley) is their only chapman ; and befides gives them,to underttand, ftand, that this traffic is a kind o f fax, which is laid every *77$, third year on the Hottentot nation. The irrefiftible attrac- tioris of brandy, likèwifë, do hot a little contribute on this occkfion, to induce the dbftinate and headftrong Hottentot to part with his property. About noon we Went to pay a vifit to a community of Hottentots affenibldd bn this fpot, who received us very frîëàdlÿ, ahd'invited us to drink fbme of their faek-milky Which, I believe, nobody could have tatted, that had not been -as thirfty, arid ï t the fame time as curious; as we. We faw then our gteafy, though, perhaps, not for thàt the lé’fs happy; hdftefS, open a leathern bag, that would hold about fix gallons', and which was made o f an undreffed calf’s-fkin taken off entire, with the hairy fide turned inwards, in thé manner I mentioned above on another occa- fion, arid at the famé time lade fbme milk out of it with a wooden ladle, the drily one they had; and which, though it was what we drank otit of, the dirtieft kitchen-wench in Swederi would haVé beéri perfectly afhamed of. But we were told; that fwéét milk Was uhwholefbme, and that therefbrë they âiwâÿs riiixed it with the clouted milk in the leathern bag. They likewife affured us, that all this milk, thus mixed every day with frèfh, to fupply the place o f What had been ufed, might be kept for many weeks as good as ever,- without their having the léaft oc- câfiori to give themfelves the trouble o f looking after it, of cleaning the bag in which it was kept, The tatte o f it.referhbled that of a fyllabub. By way o f acknowledg- irientj we gave our hofts a roll of tobacco about fix inches long*
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